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West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) is the Passenger Transport Executive for the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the executive arm of the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) and was originally formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, with the formation of the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire. From the outset, the WYPTE branded its operations as Metro, originally with a suffix of its district; that is, Metro Leeds for Leeds, Metro Bradford for Bradford, Metro Wakefield for Wakefield, Metro Kirklees for Huddersfield, and Metro Calderdale for Halifax, but regional variations in branding have since been discontinued. It is responsible for setting transport policy in the area, and by subsidising bus services and by funding local train services. MetroBus History The fleetname "Metro" was applied across the fleet, but it was suffixed by the area of operation which was Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield or Calderdale. Buses in West Yorkshire are operated by private companies, with early morning, late evening, Sunday and rural services often supported by Metro. They have a special rural bus section, which promotes a combination of minor local links and major long distance routes in the county. 1 April 1974 West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive was created by merging the municipal bus fleets of Bradford City Transport, Leeds City Transport, Huddersfield Joint Ominibus Committee and Halifax Joint Ominibus Committee who earlier in the seventies swallowed up Todmorden Joint Omnibus Committee. The acquired companies were divided into four districts and a new livery of Cream & Verona Green replaced the former Bradford light blue & cream, Huddersfield red & cream, Leeds two-tone green and Halifax & Calderdale, orange, green & cream. created following the Local Government Act of 1972.Arnold-Baker, C., Local Government Act 1972, (1973) The Executive had to operate within the policy guidelines of the County Council Public Transport Committee, coordinating the operation of all public transport in the county. The Executive also inherited approximately 1500 buses operated by the former municipal authorities of Bradford, Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield along with 6000 staff and the associated garages and street furniture. The executive relinquished ownership of local buses following the Transport Act 1985, creating arms-length operating companies. It continued to coordinate public transport as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority when the metropolitan county was abolished in 1986.Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Aspects of Britain: Local Government, (1996) New buses were purchased in large numbers at the outset. During 1976 Further expansion was gained when the operations & fleet of "Baddeley Brothers Ltd" of Holmfirth was purchased providing the PTE with additional coaching and Stage-carriage duties. During 1980 The Baddeley Brothers business was also disposed of, although the Metrocoach operation was retained. Fleet livery In 1976 modifications were made to the livery. Originally there were three stripes at the sides of the destination box that wrapped round to the sides of the bus and swept down. This took time to apply, and a trial was made with one thin line. In 1977 a further modification was made when the lines were removed entirely and the green area at the skirting area of was raised up: thus there was slightly more green. The other change was the fleet name, which was known as MetroBus, removing the district names. Late 1976 To make transfers easier between districts, it was decided to drop the district name, Buses now just carried "Metro". New vehicles were delivered with these fleetnames earlier in 1976 25 April 1977 In this month, the PTE acquired the old-established Kinsley based "United Services" from W.R & P Bingley. As well as providing the PTE with yet more coaching operations, this new acquisition also took it into an area of West Yorkshire where it had previously had no presence. United Services was maintained as a separate subsidiary and retained its distinctive blue livery whilst a new colour of red & ivory was adopted for the PTEs coaches which operated under the "Metrocoach" banner, with brown added for "Metrocoach Executive". Later on the Bingley's depot as it was known, received some double deckers transferred from the PTEs Leeds District Early 1981 A reorganisation of the PTEs operating districts was implemented with the East District becoming responsible for the various Leeds Depots & United Services, whilst the West District took control of Bradford, Halifax, Todmorden and Huddersfield. Also Three new Leyland National 2s were acquired for the United Services subsidiary, carrying the blue livery New integrated bus system During July 1981 MetroBus (the WYPTE) and the National Bus Company (NBC) formed a new integrated transport system for West Yorkshire, known as the "Metro-National Transport Company Ltd". All PTE and NBC buses in the West Yorkshire area began to appear with a new emblem, which consisted of the MetroBus WY's in one box and the NBC "double N" or "N-blem" appearing in another to the right of the PTE emblem, and slightly lower, both boxes were linked to show the integration. They also appeared with MetroBus fleetnames with "The easy way from here to there in West Yorkshire" July 1981 In 1981, a new joint company was formed by the PTE and the National Bus Company under the title of "Metro-National Transport Co Ltd" with the object being the development of an integrated transport system throughout the county. This resulted in the newly introduced "Metrobus" fleetname being applied not only to PTE owned vehicles on which WYPTE lettering was carried beneath the fleet name, but also a large number of NBC subsidiaries, "West Yorkshire Road Car Company", "West Riding Automobile Company Limited", "Yorkshire Woollen Transport Company Limited" and "Yorkshire Traction Company Limited". Those buses carried "West Yorkshire", "West Riding", "Yorkshire" and "Yorkshire Traction" names below the Metrobus name. Some years later, some of those companies (excluding Yorkshire Traction) were repainted into the PTEs verona cream & Buttermilk livery as to present a corporate image. From this date the "WY" logo on the front of buses was replaced by the "Metro-National" emblem Mid-1983 To celebrate 100 years of public transport in Huddersfield, MetroBus decided to paint up two vehicles in old liveries, Leyland Atlantean carried Huddersfield Corporation red livery and Huddersfield Tramways livery, these buses later became "Building on a Great Tradition" vehicles and were kept in those liveries until the late 90s De-regulation De-regulation occurred on Sunday 26 October 1986. The WYPTE bus division was renamed Yorkshire Rider and with it a new livery of dark olive green and cream was used and a stylised "YR" emblem, five double-decker buses were operated in each of the municipal council's colours (already included were the two Huddersfield buses), with words on the sides between the decks saying "Building on a Great Tradition". The bus services and fare/bus pass/timetables division was renamed Metro. Fleetlist Leyland Titan PD3 1974-1976 Daimler Fleetline 1974-1976 AEC Regent III 1974-1976 Leyland Atlantean 1974-1986 *Daimler CVG.VI 1974-1976 *Daimler SRG.VI 1974-1976 AEC Swift 1974-1976 Leyland Panther 1974-1976 Leyland Leopard 1974-1976 Leyland Royal Tiger 1974-1976 AEC Reliance 1974-1976 Seddon Pennine RU 1974-1976 *Guy Arab Mk.IV 1974-1976 Scania Metropolitan 1975-1985 Leyland Olympian 1980-1986 MCW Metrobus 1980-1986 Duple Dominant 1983-1986 Bank Holidays Generally speaking: * Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day - no service. Some free services are provided by volunteers using buses from the Keighley Bus Museum Trust during Christmas Day daytime. In 2007 Metro have agreed to provide trial services on main routes in Huddersfield and Leeds on Boxing Day 2007. * Christmas and New Year's Eves - Saturday service (or Sunday service if these days fall on a Sunday), but with early finish. * Weekdays between Xmas and New Year - Saturday service. Any Bank Holidays in lieu of Christmas Day falling on a weekend will have a Sunday service * Bank Holiday Mondays - Sunday service (except Saturday service on Harrogate and District, and where otherwise stated). * Good Friday - normal service. In August Metro start to Issue A ticket called Metro Active. This ticket is Available after 09:30am and is used by children (under 11) with parents, children aged 11–16 with a young persons photocard and teenagers aged 17–19 with a Scholars Photocard. The cost of the ticket is just £1 and can be used on all operators services within West Yorkshire (Also includes Barnsley and Doncaster). 'My bus' school bus services in Bingley, West Yorkshire]] My bus is a school bus service provided by West Yorkshire Metro with certain features which set it apart from normal school transport services in the United Kingdom: *a dedicated fleet of school buses (rather than ordinary transit buses or coaches borrowed from other duties); additional use of these vehicles is limited to school and young-person focussed activities and all have low floors and seat belts *drivers with enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks, who permanently assigned to each route, assisted on some routes by volunteer escorts *a bus seat is permanently assigned to each student *in-school education campaign to support the service The service, using buses painted yellow with coordinated My bus branding gained significant mode shift: 64% of primary school users were previously driven by car. Under this scheme, these buses were not allowed to be used for non-school purposes. West Yorkshire Metro claims benefits from 'My bus' ranging from reductions in car use, traffic congestion, air pollution, traffic accidents, social exclusion, truancy and late student arrivals and improvements to education, safety for pedestrians and cyclists, integration of people with special needs and children's experiences of public transport. My bus contractors: City Travel, CT Plus, First Student UK (First Calderdale & Huddersfield, First Leeds), Halifax Joint Committee, K-Line Travel, Rollinson Safeway, Transdev Keighley & District Current operators As of 2012 the following companies are owned by WYPTE.the primary service bus operators within West Yorkshire and are subject to Metro conditions and ticketing: * TLC Travel in Bradford and Otley * Metroconnect Accessbus in WYPTE Area. Rail service Local and inter-urban rail services within West Yorkshire and the surrounding areas, which are part funded by Metro, were advertised under MetroTrain brand. Some trains, which are sponsored or wholly owned by Metro, also carried MetroTrain livery. As of 2008, the MetroTrain brand is no longer used and West Yorkshire's Rail Network is used instead. Routes There are 12 lines running through the West Yorkshire area, each with their own name. The names are Airedale, Caldervale, Dearne Valley, Hallam, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Leeds-Bradford, Penistone, Pontefract, Wakefield, Wharfedale and York & Selby, which has been named after the areas that they serve. The majority of these lines run into Leeds, while most lines also run into neighbouring areas, serving towns and cities such as Barnsley, Blackpool, Doncaster, Harrogate, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Preston, Sheffield and York plus Manchester Airport. Some lines over-lap each other, which means that some stations such as Castleford, Huddersfield and Wakefield Westgate are served by more than one line. Most lines have frequent services along its routes, however the Dearne Valley line has a limited service, running two trains a day in each direction. This is a list of routes in West Yorkshire: NB: Places in bold are where services terminate, places in italic are stations located outside of West Yorkshire Notes: Re-opened stations WYPTE has had a programme of reopening railway stations throughout its existence and has reopened at least 20 stations in West Yorkshire since it came into being in 1974. The stations it has reopened are: 1982 - Deighton, Fitzwilliam, Crossflatts and Slaithwaite 1983 - Bramley 1984 - Saltaire 1987 - East Garforth, Sandall and Agbrigg and Frizinghall 1988 - Burley Park, Outwood and Cottingley. Cononley also reopened in 1988. This station lies just outside of West Yorkshire but since 2009 has been part of the WYPTE area which now extends to Skipton. 1989 - Berry Brow 1990 - Walsden and Steeton and Silsden 1992 - Streethouse, Featherstone, Pontefract Tanshelf. These three stations reopened on the same day, 12 May, when the line between Pontefract Monkhill and Wakefield Kirkgate was reopened. 2000 - Brighouse This station was opened when the Halifax to Huddersfield link was re-opened to passengers. Plans for a station in Elland were cancelled. 2005 - Glasshoughton. This new station serves Glasshoughton and the nearby Xscape complex. There are plans to reopen further stations including at Apperley Bridge and Kirkstall Forge on the Airedale Line and Low Moor near Bradford on the Caldervale Line. New stations are also planned at Horsforth Woodside and East Leeds Parkway which would be located at Micklefield. Operators Most local services are run by Northern Rail, and longer-distance routes in West Yorkshire are served by First TransPennine Express, East Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains and Grand Central. Leeds Supertram In 2001 Metro (the West Yorkshire PTE), came up with Leeds Supertram, with the idea of operating (and, to some extent bringing back) a tram network for Leeds. After the original scheme exceeded its budget, the Government asked Metro to look at ways of reducing cost of Supertram. In the spring of 2005 Metro went back to the Government with a re-costed plan but the Secretary of State for Transport (then Alistair Darling) rejected the proposal after the 2005 general election. Mr. Darling responded by pointing to plans by a private bus operator for a bus system where the vehicles were designed to look like trams. The Leeds SuperTram project is considered one of the major victims of the "Darling Axe". This is not the first time such a scheme has been unsuccessfully pursued. In the mid-1980s the PTE was interested in bringing back trolleybuses in Bradford, but this came to naught. See also *Commuter rail in the United Kingdom References External links * West Yorkshire PTE website * West Yorkshire ITA website * Bus Fleet Website * http://www.westyorkshirebuses.freeserve.co.uk/riderhistory1.htm Category:Public transport executives in the United Kingdom Category:Transport in West Yorkshire Category:Companies owned by municipalities of England